


invictus maneo

by kitanthony



Series: survivor's guilt [1]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Elias appears briefly, Episode: s04e09 The Devil You Know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-24 09:58:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4915132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitanthony/pseuds/kitanthony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Upon hearing about Anthony's fate, Bruce finds himself reminiscing about the past and worrying about the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	invictus maneo

Bruce Moran sat at the desk of his safe-house, reviewing his records of business with Elias, and making a few extra notes on his list of those who had betrayed them to join Dominic’s side.

When Bruce’s phone buzzed, he knew things must have been resolved. He answered the call and listened to the news.

“The failsafe office has been activated,” his informant said. “Just like you said.”

“Do we know who the casualties were?” Bruce asked.

“A handful of Dominic’s men, sir.” There was a pause. “And Marconi, too.”

Bruce took a deep breath. “Is that all?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you.” Bruce ended the call.

Anthony was gone.

Bruce had seen this day coming for decades, but it was still hard to believe that death had finally caught up to his friend.

-

_There was a fight breaking out just down the street from the Wayland Home for Boys. Three teen boys were at the center of a small crowd, two of them ganging up on the third. The lone fighter was holding his own, but just barely. His swings were wide and reckless, all anger and no strategy._

_Then someone new arrived, shoving through the others and shouting out, “Hey!”_

_When the fight’s audience recognized the scar marring the face of the boy who had shown up, they quickly backed away and began to disperse._

_The pair of kids winning the fight shoved their opponent to the ground and squared up to the newcomer. “Scram, Scarface. This doesn’t concern you.”_

_“And I say it does,” Anthony retorted. “Now are you gonna get out of my way or do I have to move you myself?”_

_“Bruce picked a fight with us,” one of the tag-team argued. “That means he’s ours for the beating.”_

_“I don’t give a rat’s ass, Trevor,” Anthony said. “You’d both better run along before I slit your throats like I did my old man.”_

_“You don’t scare us,” the other of the two spat._

_Anthony grinned wickedly. “I was sorta hoping you’d say that.”_

-

Bruce headed to his drinks cabinet. He poured himself some scotch and took it back to his desk. Raising the glass to the empty chair across from him, he toasted to his late friend.

“Anthony, I hope you’re listening. Next time I see you, I’m gonna kick your ass for leaving me behind like this.” Bruce let out a sigh and added, “And thanks for everything.” He downed his drink, placed the empty glass on his desk, and dove back into his work, letting the information coat him in armor against this new blow.

-

_“What the hell were you thinking?!” Anthony growled out, dragging Bruce away by the back of his shirt. He had left the other two from the fight on the ground, bruised and bloodied but otherwise fine._

_“I was doing fine!” Bruce argued. “I didn’t need your help.”_

_“If I hadn’t cut in, you would’ve been beaten unconscious by those thugs,” Anthony said. “You can’t just go around picking fights like that.”_

_“You’re still new here,” Bruce said huffily. “You don’t know what I can and can’t do. Elias—”_

_Anthony cut him off. “Boss ain’t here!” he snapped. “And while he’s away, I’m in charge.” He shook Bruce roughly before letting go. “You think he would’ve liked it if I’d just let them kick the shit out of you?”_

_“Well he’s not gonna like it when they send you to the Room on the third floor!” Bruce shot back._

_“We’ll deal with that when we have to. Right now you’re gonna tell me what that was all about.”_

_“It’s none of your business!”_

_Anthony stopped by the entrance to Wayland Home and cornered Bruce against the wall. “We agreed to stick together, the three of us. That means everything is all of our business. So are you gonna trust me or are we gonna have to rethink this little band of ours?”_

_“They wouldn’t even look at me!” Bruce shouted. “None of them. They just ignored me when I tried to talk to them.”_

_“Why the hell would you want to talk to them??” Anthony asked._

_“I wanted to make a trade with one of them, but they only acknowledged me to say I couldn’t give them anything in return. I told them I could! I could solve problems, get them information, whatever they wanted!” Bruce crossed his arms and leaned back against the building. “They said I could only do that stuff because I was friends with you and Elias, and that I was useless on my own. That even in a fight I would do more damage than good.”_

_Anthony sighed. “You’re smart enough not to rise to that kinda bait, Brucie.”_

_“I didn’t rise to it. I wanted to start that fight!” Bruce insisted. “I just didn’t know the two of them would team up like that.”_

_“And you wanted to fight because…you thought you could use a black eye and a few broken ribs?” Anthony questioned._

_“You don’t understand,” Bruce grumbled. “You don’t know what it was like before I was sent here.”_

_Anthony narrowed his eyes, concerned with what he was about to hear. “Tell me.”_

-

Bruce’s phone buzzed again, snapping him out of his daze. He blinked at his notebook and realized he’d been re-reading the same page for the last hour. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the text he had received. It was a request to meet Elias at the boardwalk where they had last seen each other. Where he’d last seen Anthony.

Sending a short confirmation, Bruce looked down at his apparel. He needed a shower and a change of clothes before he’d be ready for this.

Elias and Anthony had always had a deep bond, some strange connection they never shared even with the third member of their close-knit trio. Bruce knew today’s events would’ve taken a worse toll on Elias than anyone, including himself. Though Anthony and Elias were Bruce’s brothers, there was something uniquely special about what bound Anthony to his boss.

Bruce was sure Elias was already concocting an elaborate plan to get revenge on Dominic, though he could only guess at the details. Elias had always been the big-picture thinker, while Bruce liked facts, details, and things he could control. He needed to have control over things. That was one thing he and Elias always agreed on.

-

_“When I was eight,” Bruce told Anthony as they leaned against the wall, “I was bullied by a kid a few grades above me. One day he followed me after school and cornered me in an alley with a knife. When my mom came home, I was at the kitchen table struggling to stay awake. She told me not to bleed all over the furniture, and that I had better patch myself up because she wasn’t paying to take me to a hospital. Then she dropped the first aid kit on the table and left again.”_

_Anthony frowned. “What about your dad?”_

_Bruce shook his head. “He barely greeted me before locking himself in his office. They both worked for the Five Families, they didn’t have time for a kid. Not that they spent the time they did have on me.”_

_“What happened to them?”_

_“They got killed. Something to do with their jobs. Hell, it was probably their own people that did it.” Bruce looked over at his friend. “I can’t stop. The fights, I mean. I almost died that day, but it was still a good day for me because my mom paid attention to me. I realized I could get her and dad’s attention that way. I could get them to talk to me, to look at me, if I fucked up real bad. So I got myself into trouble a lot, picked fights, stole things, broke stuff. I couldn’t control anything in my life, but I could control that. I could make my parents talk to me whenever I wanted. I could make the kids at school want to hurt me. It became addicting: the adrenaline rush, feeling someone’s rage, knowing how to push them over the edge._

_“The day my parents died, I was planning on targeting a cop next. I thought that would really piss them off because then they could get in trouble with the Families. Before I even got out of school, though, the police came and got me. Told me something had happened and my parents were dead.”_

_Anthony put an arm around his friend. “I’m sorry, Brucie. I didn’t know.”_

_Bruce shook his head. “I didn’t even care that they had been murdered. I just thought to myself, ‘Who’s gonna pay attention to me now?’ Because no one cares if an orphaned kid on the street ends up in the hospital. I would be alone and ignored, and at that moment I wished I had been killed along with my parents.”_

_“So the fight…” Anthony started._

_“I guess old habits die hard. I still get itchy, feel the need to do something dangerous. It’s not so much that I want to get hurt, but here it’s hard to find an outlet for that feeling. Picking fights is the easiest thing to do.” Bruce looked down at his feet. “Elias usually gives me a project to work on while he’s gone, so I have something to do, but this time it was something stupid. I can’t do it.”_

_“What was it?”_

_“He told me to write about my favorite subject in school.”_

_“What subject is it?”_

_“Math.”_

_Anthony laughed. “Aw, Brucie. I didn’t know you were such a nerd.”_

_“Shut up,” Bruce grumbled good-naturedly. “What the hell am I supposed to write?”_

_“I dunno, I hate math.” Anthony shrugged and ruffled Bruce’s hair. “But I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”_

_“Thanks, Anthony.”_

_“Anytime.”_

-

“We won’t meet like this again,” Elias said. “I’ve lost one friend. I don’t want to lose another.”

Once Bruce had left Elias’ side, he couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last time he ever saw his friend. They always kept in contact, however indirectly to avoid being caught, but he sincerely hoped they would at least make time to have dinner together. It had been a while since they really talked, and they would both need each other now more than ever.

Bruce was used to being by himself most of the time, only seeing Elias and Anthony every once in a while to catch up. For the first time in ages, Bruce was worried about Elias. He didn’t know what would happen now that Elias’ main support beam was swept out from under him. Elias and Anthony were never apart very long, so there was no telling what this permanent separation would do to him. Bruce only hoped that Elias would stay close, so he could keep an eye on his old friend. He had the feeling Elias might do something reckless just to get what he wanted, and he wouldn’t care if it ended badly for him. Maybe he even wanted it to. It was a feeling Bruce knew all too well.


End file.
